Large dental laboratories have heavy, reinforced pressure vessels, like cookers, which will apply a high fluid pressure to a considerable quantity of various objects, often with simultaneous application of heat. However it would be desirable to have a small, portable, self-contained, inexpensive pressure unit in which either a lone technician or dentist can quickly cure, say, a single pair of dentures or a molded trinket without leaving the office or workbench, or alternately can carry such unit on a field trip and there cure dentures or other articles with either gas or liquid pressure and in the absence of associated equipment such as an air compressor or thermal elements. Thus if such pressure vessel were available, a small plastic object could be "cold cured" at a minimum of say 18 to 20 PSI for a limited curing cycle which would prevent retention of gas bubbles or voids which might otherwise result from reaction with catalytic material found intimately mixed with the setting plastic or resin.
However the fragile nature of the general class of synthetic resins has prevented their use in forming such a high pressure reaction chamber as a small unit. Alternately, use of the more expensive metals, such as steel, is generally limited to larger and more costly assemblies. By way of comparison with the present unit, a resilient plastic vessel limited to use of hydraulic pressure and requiring metallic closure clamps is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,450,039.